In the 11-year period of 2005 through 2015, canines killed 360 Americans. Pit bulls contributed to 64% (232) of these deaths. Combined, pit bulls and rottweilers contributed to 76% of the total recorded deaths. | More »

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Crime Scene Tape Flows
Staten Island, NY - In a developing story, a 90-year-old man was mauled by two pit bulls in a brutal attack in Staten Island's Port Richmond neighborhood. The victim, Henry Piotrowski, was taken to Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton, and is listed in critical condition. His left leg has been amputated at the knee, and he'll likely lose one of his arms as well.

His niece, Lainey Suttuon said, "We're pretty sure the [left] arm is going to go, too." Saving the left arm would require a 10-to-12-hour operation, and doctors are reluctant to submit her elderly uncle to the ordeal. Also, his right leg is fractured. "The next three days are very critical. He lost a lot of blood," said Ms. Sutton, who drove from Hillsborough, N.J., after hearing about the attack.

James McNair, 28, the dogs' owner, was arrested Tuesday night in connection with the gruesome incident, police said. The animals were put down. Charges against McNair -- a registered sex offender -- are pending. (The 11-year old child in the video lived at the dog owner's home along with a woman that denied owning the dogs and declined to comment.)

The attack occurred just after 11am on July 1st. In describing a sustained attack, neighbor Reginald Bell said that, "The dogs were actually eating him alive." Bell was drawn outside his home after he heard the victim screaming for help. He spotted the dogs on top of Piotrowski in the man's back yard. Bell said. "His legs were eaten to the bone. His arms were eaten to the bone."

Bell said he ran inside his home, called 911, then grabbed a butcher's knife and chased the dogs away from their defenseless victim. The pit bulls had fled by the time police arrived. Cops searched the neighborhood before locating the dogs inside a nearby house. More than an hour after the attack, officers were seen carrying the pit bulls, Popeye and Brutus, out of the home.

6 comments:

I blame the breeder of these outrageously dangerous animals. When a dog is out of containment and comes across another living creature it has three choices to make:

Flee, Submit or Fight.

We all know which choice the American Pit Bull Terrier will make!

Anonymous | 7/02/2008 5:39 AM | FlagThis man survived being a World War II tank driver then ends up getting "blown up" during a routine walk 60 years later.

Way to go Pit Bull Breeders!!!

Anonymous | 7/02/2008 8:34 AM | FlagOne of the alleged owners of the dogs was a convicted sex offender, (living in the same home as the child, apparently).

Read the comments section, it will make you furious...there are neighbors insisting the dogs were wonderful, and just being protective of the children, and there are neighbors insisting the dogs were vicious. Most of the posters praise pit bulls for being wonderful pets and the incident is the result of "irresponsible owners".

I have to say, I live in a neighborhood where dogs get off leash all the time....we have labs, goldens, JRT, a setter, rat terrier, beagles, Cairn terrier, Westie, Airdales,a corgi, Min pins, and mutts. If one of the neighborhood dogs gets off leash and runs around, our biggest fear if for the dog...that it could be hit by a car! The Goldens are tethered, and often get loose and run through the neighborhood...they have "irresponsible" owners. The difference is, none of the family pets in my neighborhood pose any sort of threat to other people or their pets.

NO ONE in my neighborhood would feel threatened by one of the neighborhood dogs being loose. There is NO room in society for a breed of dog that kills people when it is "irresponsibly" owned, and gets off leash. Period. When will politicians understand this basic fact? If you need a PHD in applied animal behavior, a breakstick, an "escape proof enclosure", and advanced obedeince training to manage these dogs, they shouldn't exist in our communities as pets.

schultz | 7/02/2008 11:36 AM | Flagwatch the video again and this time watch the adult with the child. his mouth is MOVING as the child speaks and blames the 90 yr old man for the attack!!! it is as if the boy is reciting a statement written by the father.

KoryNDenver | 7/07/2008 1:04 PM | FlagDr. Peter Borchelt, PhD, a certified applied animal behaviorist testified in court that the level of danger to a human from multiple pit bulls engaging in an attack is exponential, not just a simply factor of multiplication as with any other breed of dog.

When will this carnage be recognized as a real-life "Jurassic Park" situation, one that demands preventative action, not just responsive prosecution of "irresponible dog owners", who can not be identified until AFTER their pit bulls attack?